Episode 2: Can Fake Meat Save the World?
Right now you can buy “plant-based” alternatives to burgers, bacon and sausage anywhere from fast-food chains to restaurants to grocery meat cases. The companies who make them say they are better for animals, the climate and human health, too — that these products will drastically cut into meat consumption, curtail meat production and save us from the catastrophic effects of climate change. Are these products any different from the vegan products that preceded them? Are they actually good for us? And are they the best solution to our industrial agriculture problems?
In this episode, part 1 of 2 on fake meat products, we also examine what it means to compare these products with their industrial meat counterparts instead of comparing them to more sustainably produced meat, or to truly plant-based protein sources, like beans.
Available wherever you listen to podcasts.
"Plant-based to me means that a plant was actually involved in the process, or at least close to the process. In the case of these particular products that call themselves plant-based, I feel like it's almost a co-opting of that term."
Episode Guests
Anna Lappé
Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author, a respected advocate for food justice and sustainability and an advisor to funders investing in food system transformation.
Patty Lovera
Patty Lovera works on food and agriculture policy, with a special focus on animal agriculture. She helped start Food & Water Watch, serving as their Food and Water Program Director for 14 years.
Dr. Urvashi Rangan
Dr. Rangan is the Chief Science Advisor for FoodPrint, and a toxicologist and public health scientist with 20 years of experience studying the food system. She is a co-chair of the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture and for many years she worked at Consumer Reports, heading up their Food Safety and Sustainability Center.
Ryan Nebeker
Ryan is the policy and research analyst for FoodPrint. He holds an M.S. in Agriculture, Food and the Environment from The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Alicia Kennedy
Alicia Kennedy is a food and culture writer who has a widely read Substack newsletter called “From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy.” She is at work on a book about ethical eating.
Deeper Learning
The FoodPrint of Fake Meat
In this report, we dig even deeper into how these products deliver on promises of lower environmental impact, fewer animals in production and improved personal health. We also examine what it means to compare these products with their industrial meat counterparts instead of comparing them to more sustainably produced meat, or to truly plant-based protein sources, like beans. Is more technology what is needed?
The FoodPrint of Crops
Read FoodPrint’s deep dive on how industrial crops like soy and corn, two common ingredients in fake meat products, are grown. Learn about the problems of monoculture farming and the chemical fertilizers and pesticides it relies on.
Additional Resources
- “How Do They Make Plant-Based Meat Behave Like Beef?” by J. Kenji López-alt, for The New York Times
- Read this book, on the history of soy, by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, “History of Meat Alternatives” (960 CE to 2014).
Read More About Plant-Based Meats
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Top photo by Mara Galliete/Adobe Stock.